My prediction of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament bracket, coupled with sporadic observations about Notre Dame basketball and college basketball in general.
Constructive criticism is welcome, and in fact encouraged. I will attempt to defend my remarks, but I will consider all comments that come my way.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Notre Dame beat Connecticut. This is old news by now. Everyone knows that Tory Jackson got hurt, though it is still questionable whether he was fouled. You don't need my opinion on that. After two Big East games, we have seen Notre Dame two ways. First, against West Virginia the Irish won because Harangody could get physical and score inside. Against Connecticut, Luke got blocked repeatedly, but the Irish still won thanks to the quickness of KMac. I believe that if Luke isn't getting blocked and the Irish can stop having second-half dry spells, then they can beat anyone. Since the tallest starter for Marquette is 6'6", I like the Irish chances this Saturday. They have yet to prove anything on the road, and they still have trouble maintaining a lead. Given the in-conference results this week, however, it seems that Notre Dame could be of the top four teams in the conference.

Elsewhere:

St. Mary's is still a good team, even if they did lose to Texas. They were playing on the road against a superior team, so it should not be held against them.

Oregon cannot be trusted to win or lose appropriate games. I would not count on them to make the tournament, but they should win some games that they are not supposed to.

How does Villanova follow up a loss to Depaul with a win over Pitt?

After losing to Penn St. on Sunday, Illinois needs a miracle (or three) to make the tournament.

UNC-Clemson was entertaining basketball because Clemson played so well. Cornell-Duke was entertaining basketball because Duke played so poorly. Duke could win this conference, but they could also end up third.

Auburn does not look like a legitimate tourney team. They've gotten blown out in their only games against good teams, and also lost to Tulane. According to the Pomeroy Ratings they are by far the worst team in the SEC, and are predicted to finish with a losing record.

Boston College's at-large hopes took a serious hit last night when they lost AT HOME to Robert Morris.

Tonight:

Florida @ Alabama: Both of these teams obtained their outstanding records by beating up weaker teams. They both have an outside chance at making the tournament, but need wins better than Georgia Southern and Missouri St., respectively

St. Mary's @ Fresno St.: The Gaels really need a true road win.

Holy Cross @ Maryland: Holy Cross is clearly the best team in the Patriot League, and has a chance for a nice road win here.

Georgetown @ Depaul: Depaul had an upset over Villanova and are 2-0 in the Big East. They will probably win tonight, but anything can happen in the Big East.

2 comments:

"Auburn does not look like a legitimate tourney team. They've gotten blown out in their only games against good teams, and also lost to Tulane."

Look, Tulane may not be great- but they are 10-4 w/ wins over St. Johns, LSU, Georgia... they won 17 games last year, one yeat after the place was leveled by Katrina...losses include road games at Syracuse and St Mary's... what more do you want them to do until you consider them "good"?

Losses also include a road loss at Buffalo and a home loss to New Orleans. LSU, Georgia, and St. John's are not good this year. That's not Tulane's fault. When they scheduled LSU and Auburn they thought they'd be getting quality teams. That was not the case, and they are now a 10-4 team with two bad losses, no good wins, and no quality teams (other than Memphis) remaining.

About Me

I'm a huge sports nut, despite not being able to do well at any sport. I follow college basketball quite closely, and feel that I know enough to put out my thoughts.
Please note that my seeding philosophy is to act as if the season were ending today. I don't care if the team has wins that should bolster their resume in a few weeks - those games are not sure things, and thus should not be considered while creating a seed list.